Sony Ericsson Txt Pro – Touch and Type QWERTY Messenger

Sony Ericsson Txt Pro

The Sony Ericsson Txt Pro could be easily mistaken for the Sony Xperia Mini Pro except for the bigger display. Sony have been trying hard to get a good hit at the mid range market and the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro is just the correct phone to get it right. A full touchscreen(capacitive) along with a sliding QWERTY could make this midrange midget one of those things to long for. With WiFi on board, sharing photos from 3MP camera would be more than easy. The UI has also been greatly adapted from the Sony Xperia Mini Pro giving the phone an Android look. There are also options for integrating GMail, Picasa and Google Talk. For the price, the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro is quite a phone.

Sony Ericsson Txt Pro

Design

The Sony Ericsson Txt Pro is very compact and finds itself very comfortable in the hands. The phone measures 93 x 52 x 18 mm in terms of dimensions. Given the sliding QWERTY keypad, it could not be the slimmest. The weight of 100g is quite perfect to hold the phone. The back of the phone has been designed keeping in mind the Human Curvature which is typical of a Sony phone. With perfect size, perfect weight and the Human curvature design, the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro is one of the best phones to stick to hands.

The front of the phone is dominated by the 3″inch display above which there is the stylish earpiece. The display is decent and the viewing angles are good but in the sunlight, the display fails to impress. To the right of the earpiece are the proximity and ambient sensors. Below the display is the single home key for the navigation purposes. On the right side of the phone, there is the stylish volume rocker towards the top and a dedicated camera key to the bottom. Both the keys are on the lower slider in which the QWERTY keypad is there. The left side of the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro is barren. On top of the phone there is the 3.5mm headphone jack to the right of which there is the screen lock key. The left side of the 3.5mm jack is occupied by the uncovered microUSB port. Just like the Xperia Mini Pro, there is a small LED towards the north of the microUSB port which indicates about the status of the phone charge. On the bottom is the mic pinhole along with the lanyard eyelet. On the back of the phone is the 3.2MP camera that is diagonally opposite to the loudspeaker. Beneath the back cover of the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro is the 1000mAh battery. Under the battery are the SIM card and microSD card slots and hence hot swappablility is not an option.

The overall build quality of the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro is great. The soft plastic matter covering over the phone is really a pleasure to hold on. The nice compact shape and size along with the curved back make sure that the phone always feels comfortable in the hands – be it in portrait or landscape mode.

QWERTY Keyboard

The QWERTY keyboard is probably the best feature of the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro. On sliding the phone, the beautiful 4 row QWERTY keypad is revealed. Being almost exactly similar to the QWERTY keypad on the Xperia Mini Pro, the phone is a very capable and powerful texter. Though the keys are a little smaller than the Mini Pro version, the texting capabilities are still in tact. There is sufficient space between the keys to allow easy and fast typing. The feedback is quite good as well meaning that typing would be an awesome experience on the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro.

Android Timescape UI

On first looks of the UI, one would think that the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro is running on Android. That is what Sony have done here. To make sure that all their touch phones have a consistent UI, they have put the Timescape UI on he Txt Pro making it very comfortable to use. There are a couple of homescreens to start with and one of those has the Time while the other has the five best friends list in the form of cover flow. Although a third screen appears when the music player is running. There are four icons each in one corner just like the Timescape UI. By default these corners are browser, dialer, messaging and contacts although they can be changed later. Just like Android there is the notification bar on the top display the network details along with the battery percentage. Being a feature phone, the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro can run Java apps and there are basic Java apps for Facebook, Twitter, GMail and so on.

On the shortcomings side of the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro, there is no real file manager. And one of the hard hitting truths is that unless you put the file in the proper directory, it will not be read by the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro. The Txt Pro also lacks multitasking, but it is hardly something to except from a phone this price. Being a feature phone, it does not boast of a powerful CPU and hence the sluggish result. The UI is laggy and sluggish because of the mediocre processor.

Music Player

The Music player of the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro has its looks borrowed from the Android counter part. The capabilites are good. The UI is something to brag about. The songs are arranged according to the album and artists. The audio quality is good and being a Sony phone that is nothing to be surprised about.

Camera

The 3MP camera on the Sony Ericsson Txt Pro is very basic and there is not even auto-focus but that is what you get at this range. There is a dedicated camera key though making it slightly better. The images are quite decent for a phone at this range. There is some detail to the photos leaving out the noise. The UI of the camera is also borrowed from the Android phones with options at the corners. The video recording is very basic at QVGA. Videos could never be used anywhere.

Connectivity, Web Browser

The Sony Ericsson Txt Pro does not have 3G to brag about good internet speeds, but it has WiFi. Having WiFi will enable the phone to be used to browse the web, check mails and so on. Relying on EDGE data connection is not going to help. The Sony Ericsson Txt Pro comes with Opera Mini 5.1 preinstalled as well as the stock Sony browser. The Sony browser is good, but only when there is WiFi, else it would be wise to use the Opera Mini.